Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the credit ratings of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and its parent company to junk from investment grade on Thursday, the second time in one week the utility has been hit with such an action because of the peril it faces from recent California wildfires.

Moody’s cited critical comments made by state legislative leaders about the corporate governance of PG&E and regulatory allegations that the utility falsified certain natural gas records for several years as key reasons for the downgrade.

Shares of PG&E Corp., the utility’s parent company, were trading after hours at $16.61, down 6.48 percent from Thursday’s closing price.

The action followed a similar step taken this week by S&P Global Ratings, which also cited wildfire-related problems. Credit downgrades could make PG&E’s access to capital more difficult and increase its future borrowing costs.

Jeff Cassella, senior credit officer at Moody’s, said in a statement that his firm sees PG&E in a “much more challenging environment” lately.

“The company is increasingly reliant on extraordinary intervention by legislators and regulators, which may not occur soon enough or be of sufficient magnitude to address these adverse developments,” Cassella said in the statement.

Moody’s said it will continue looking for supportive signals toward PG&E from legislators and regulators, and it may downgrade the credit ratings even further.

“The board is actively assessing PG&E’s operations, finances, management, structure and governance,” Andy Castagnola, a company spokesman, said in an email.

J.D. Morris is a business reporter covering energy, including PG&E, Tesla and California’s clean power initiatives.

Before joining The Chronicle, he was the Sonoma County government reporter for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, where he was among the journalists awarded a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the 2017 North Bay wildfires.

He was previously the casino industry reporter for the Las Vegas Sun. Raised in Monterey County and Bakersfield, he has a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric from UC Berkeley.